Influence of West on Middle East Politics

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Middle Eastern politics, especially democratic politics in the region, remain fluid, ever evolving and are by no means heterogeneous. There are many different actors with different political, social, and/or ideological trends that have entered the political scene. The West has many different vested interests in the Middle East, from economic and security, to spreading democratic ideals. Due to these interests, the West maintains cordial relations with the countries of the Middle East and different actors with which it has shared interests. There are also many different actors with which the West views as unacceptable and illegitimate, even though they have derived their legitimacy through the ballot box, social programs and popular support. If the West wants to spread democratic ideals, and foster them, it must listen and attempt to work with not only its friends, but different democratically elected political actors which it deems illegitimate, like Hizballah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Palestinian Territories and the Sadrist Trend in Iraq.

The Lebanese organization Hizballah has a long history, beginning during the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War as a Shia resistance, militia and social organization (Norton, p. 34), to its present form today as a political, social and Israeli resistance militia organization. While many in the West view Hizballah as nothing more than an Iranian puppet and Shia hegemon within Lebanon, it is not, it is a well-organized and funded political party (Jones, p. 114) and the only resistance militia to Israel to remain in Taif Agreement Lebanon (Jones, p. 112), and has become a serious social organization, which provides services and security to its constituents, sometimes to a better effect than the Lebanese Government. As discussed in lecture and in Jones, the 2005 Lebanese Parliamentary election which Hizballah participated in under the Resistance Development and Liberation list, won 14...